Several years of severe budget cuts have placed unprecedented levels of stress on California's public schools, severely limiting their ability to provide a quality education, according to new report released Tuesday.

The report by Bay Area think-tank EdSource surveyed the state's 30 largest school districts, including five from Orange County, to measure how budget cuts have resulted in teacher layoffs, a shorter school year, larger class sizes, fewer counselors and other reductions to programs and services.

Freedberg said EdSource prepared the report to help Californian's obtain a better understanding of the issues facing public schools.

"Californians will likely be deciding on ballot initiatives this November that would provide additional funding for schools. We want to provide information that will help voters objectively assess the challenges facing schools," he said.

Overall, Orange County schools have lost about $1 billion in state funding over the past five years. In that time, most local districts have cut jobs, increased class sizes, shortened the school year and implemented other cuts.

"It's really no secret that public education is taking a beating," county Superintendent William Habermehl said. "Schools across the state are stretched thinner now than they have ever been."

The report's key findings include:

Counselors

• 22 out of 30 districts have fewer counselors than they had before the onset of the 2007-08 school year. Across all 30 districts, the number of school counselors has declined by 20 percent.

Layoffs

• More than one-third of the districts ended up laying off some 2,000 classroom teachers for the current school year.

Poverty rates

• 26 out of 30 districts are serving more free and reduced-price meals than in 2007-08. Across the state, 57 percent of students qualify for subsidized meal programs, a 6 percentage point increase since 2007-08.

Class sizes

• Half of the districts surveyed had 30 or more students in one or more of their K-3 grades, a stark reversal of the 1-to-20 teacher-to-student ratio that was the norm in almost every K-3 classroom in 2007-08. Only one district reported having an average class size of 20 students and that was only in one grade–kindergarten.

School year

• 12 out of 30 districts have an instructional year of less than 180 days.

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